Long Name, But Good Cookie

Yesterday, I went to the best supermarket in the known universe: Jungle Jim's.  Seriously, they have everything that anyone could ever imagine in there.  They have guided tours, because the place is so unbelievably huge.  Anyway, lest I get myself too far off topic, I'll continue with my story.  Every time I go there, I make a beeline for the reduced price section, because they invariably have amazing deals.  And I wasn't disappointed.  Along with the 79-cent hummus, the 25-cent-per-pound bananas, and the $1.29-a-pound grapes, I found dates on sale.  I am an absolute sucker for dates, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  It wasn't until later on that evening, though, that the realization two-by-foured me in the face that they were dried dates.  For those of you on Weight Watchers, you know as well as I do that dried fruit (unlike its hydrated counterpart) racks up the points really quickly.  I had a problem!  I had to figure out something to do with this ungodly amount of dates that I had just purchased.  So, I got creative.  I knew that I could somehow work them into baked goods, but the question remained, what kind of baked goods?  I had friends coming over for Saturday dinner, so I decided to make dessert.  And, trying to be as healthy as possible, I decided on something with whole grain -- so oatmeal cookies it was.  I rummaged through my cabinets to figure out what else I could add to the cookies, and found pecans and cinnamon chips.  I added those to the conglomeration, and if I do say so myself, they came out extremely well.  They say the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, and my friends inevitably agreed, because they scarfed them down all evening.  Here's the recipe I came up with -- I ran the recipe through the Weight Watchers online recipe builder, and they come out to 2 PointsPlus a piece.  I especially like how the cinnamon and the dates play off of one another.


Date Pecan Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies (If you can come up with a better name for this, I'm all ears!)

1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup Splenda
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg (or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters)
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups dried dates, diced
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 375 F.  In a large bowl combine the applesauce and sugars.  Add the eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Add the flour, salt, and soda; beat well.  Stir in the oats, dates, pecans, and cinnamon chips.  Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.  Makes approximately 50 cookies.

Notes:

• If you have a silicone baking mat, it works perfectly for this.  I swear by mine.
• I used a small cookie scoop to get a consistent size -- they end up being about walnut-sized balls in order to get the right number.
• They don't really spread in the oven, so if you'd like them to be more of the "traditional" cookie shape, mash them down first.